sort properties alphabetically in variable preview not working

Hello

As I preview for example ListBox handle and I try to sort properties by name then displayed order is bizarre. Or do I do something wrong or misunderstand something?

[Jordan B]

I have the same issue. It just sortof randomizes them or something.

[Matt J]

It is not random. For example, the Items, ItemsData, Value, and ValueChangedFcn properties are related to one another. Users will often want to view them grouped together, even though they are far apart alphabetically.

[Christopher Deng]

Well, nearly none of the users I know want this kind of list. Why cant we have an alphabetically sorted property names?

Answer 1

[Matt J]

You cannot change the order in which properties are displayed in the variable editor (other than to reverse it). If you want an alphabetized list of the properties, however, you can generate one at the command line.

>> string(sort(properties(lb)))

ans =

29×1 string array

"BackgroundColor"

"BeingDeleted"

"BusyAction"

"ContextMenu"

"CreateFcn"

"DeleteFcn"

"Enable"

"FontAngle"

"FontColor"

"FontName"

"FontSize"

"FontWeight"

"HandleVisibility"

"InnerPosition"

"Interruptible"

"Items"

"ItemsData"

"Layout"

"Multiselect"

"OuterPosition"

"Parent"

"Position"

"Tag"

"Tooltip"

"Type"

"UserData"

"Value"

"ValueChangedFcn"

"Visible"

[Jordan B]

It's a little rediculous that you have to do this. They should just make the sort button actually work properly.

[Matt J]

It cannot work the way you might be used to from Windows Explorer because the sort button in Windows Explorer only has 2 states: forward and reverse alphabetical order. There are users, however, who sometimes want the order you currently see, the order in which the properties are defined in the ListBox class definition, which is a 3rd and 4th state altogether.